Chapter 4 - The Betrayal of Motherhood
Interrogation Room B was cold and sterile. My mother, Teresa, sat under the bright fluorescent lights, her eyes sunken and terrified. When Detective Hayes and I walked in, she reached out her trembling hands.
"Alex! Thank God!" she cried out. "Tell this officer to let me go! Derek didn't mean it! It was an accident! He was just trying to get the computer papers Clara stole from Mr. Vance!"
I stood at the edge of the table, staring down at her with absolute disgust. "An accident, Mom? She was smothered to death while our six-year-old daughter was locked in the next room crying for her mother!"
"You don't understand!" Teresa shrieked, weeping uncontrollably. "Derek was going to be killed by loan sharks! Mr. Vance promised to clear all his debts and buy us a new house in Florida if we just helped him get those files back! Clara was going to destroy Derek’s life by going to the police!"
"Clara was trying to save my life!" I roared, stepping into her space. "Vance was setting me up to take the fall for his federal smuggling ring! If Clara hadn't found those manifests, I would be sitting in a federal prison right now while Vance took everything I owned!"
Teresa shook her head frantically. "No... no, Mr. Vance is a good man! He signed your paychecks! He gave us money when your father had his stroke!"
"He bribed you!" Hayes snapped, throwing a stack of photos onto the table. They were crime scene photos of Clara’s body, followed by photos of Clara’s phone, which deputies had just recovered from inside Teresa’s sewing kit in the basement.
"We pulled your fingerprints off Clara’s phone, Teresa," Hayes said coldly. "And we pulled audio from the house’s landline. You called Aunt Beatrice at six o'clock that evening and said, 'It's done. Bring the transport van and the casket. We need her buried before Alex gets back from West Virginia.'"
Teresa froze. Her face drained of all color as she realized her own words had trapped her.
"You locked your six-year-old granddaughter in a bedroom without food or water for two days while you helped cover up the murder of her mother," Hayes continued, his voice laced with venom. "That makes you an accessory to first-degree murder, evidence tampering, and child endangerment."
"Alex... please..." Teresa sobbed, reaching for my coat sleeve. "I’m your mother!"
I pulled my arm back as if her touch were poison.
"You stopped being my mother the moment you traded Clara’s life for Derek’s gambling debts," I said softly, every word cut like broken glass. "You will spend the rest of your natural life in a concrete cell. And you will never, ever see Lily again."
I turned my back on her screams and walked out of the room.
In the hallway, Hayes pulled me aside. "Derek is cracking in Interrogation A. He’s terrified of the death penalty. He’s ready to confess that Richard Vance ordered the hit directly."
"Then let's get Vance," I said, my voice hardening into steel.
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"It’s not that simple, Alex," Hayes warned. "Vance is a billionaire with a private security force, connections in the governor's office, and a team of high-powered attorneys. If we move on him with just Derek’s testimony, his lawyers will claim Derek is a desperate murderer trying to pin his crime on his rich boss. We need ironclad proof that Vance ordered the murder and manages the illegal shipments."
"I know where that proof is," I said quietly. "It's inside Terminal 4 at the Silver Creek Logistics Depot. And I have the security keys."
